Every superhero has a nemesis. Many have dark or mirror equivalents who pose threats that are particularly close to home. Some superheroes are unlucky enough to have more than one, and that’s particularly true of the Flashes — the Speed Force-powered superheroes of the DC Universe.
Reverse Flash is a well-known opposite of Flash, who’s easily spotted when he slows down thanks to his inverted speed suit. But the mirror-villain, otherwise known as Eobard Thawne, is far from the Flash’s only fast foe.
In the second season of the CW’s The Flash, a new speedster entered the fray, taking the first-season threat of Reverse Flash to a new level.
Not the Flash you were expecting
Played by Teddy Sears, the new arrival was a dashing speedster called Jay Garrick. The Flash of Earth 2 arrived on Earth 1 to mentor his counterpart as he warned of an imminent multiversal danger coming their way.
Jay helped Team Flash combat threats from Earth 2, including the villain Zoom, an experienced, powerful, and deadly super-speedster who hid his identity behind a menacing black suit. For some time, all we knew was that the dark speedster sounded a lot like horror icon Tony Todd. It was only after Zoom broke into S.T.A.R. Labs and killed Jay Garrick that Team Flash learned the truth.
Garrick hadn’t been the Crimson Comet of Earth 2 at all. He was Hunter Zoloman, a serial killer gifted superspeed by the S.T.A.R. Labs explosion on his parallel planet. Styling himself as Zoom the Speed Demon, Zoloman used Velocity serum to increase his speed enough to break the dimensional barrier and learn the identity of Earth 1’s Flash. He kidnapped the real Jay Garrick, the doppelganger of Barry Allen’s father, Henry, and imprisoned him in his Earth-2 stronghold as he dispatched threats to Earth 1 to test his new rival.
Then he made his move, taking on the heroic mantle of Earth 2’s Flash for the perverse fun of it, and toying with the team from within. The help he gave Barry to increase his speed wasn’t to defeat Zoom, but so he could steal it for himself. He formed a romantic relationship with Caitlin Snow, and the team mourned his death, only to find that the victim was a time remnant Zoloman had manipulated into sacrificing himself.
Journey to Black Flash
Unmasked, Zoloman set about breaking Allen, murdering his father in the process (promoting Barry’s later accidental creation of the Flashpoint paradox). The villain then challenged his counterpart to a race that would establish who was the fastest man alive. Of course, the villain’s real plan was to use the contest to siphon Allen’s speed. Flash triumphed over Zoom using his arrogance and time remnant tricks against him. The Time Wraiths of the Speed Force delivered the final verdict. The enforcers and protectors of the Speed Force arrived to punish Zoom for his temporal transgressions by decaying him into the Black Flash.
It was one of the show’s most hideous fates, and the speedster zombie subsequently appeared as a speed force enforcer in later series and sister shows.
The later reset of the Arrowverse multiverse rewrote Zoloman’s history, and fans are itching to see the charismatic villain return for the show’s ninth season in 2023.
Comic variations
The Flash’s Hunter Zoloman is an update of a relatively new antagonist introduced to the comics by Geoff Johns. It’s no surprise that Zoloman was the speedster picked to carry the mantle left by Eobard Thawne, although his origins were dramatically changed, which helped his disguise as Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick.
During a classic Flash story arc in 2021, Keystone City’s defender gained a new speedy enemy with powers and a tragic back-story that dug deep into the Speedsters’ personal life. The villain was simply called Zoom, but his history was much more complicated.
Hunter Zoloman was introduced to DC Comics post-Crisis — after the DC was first reset and refreshed by 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths. Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, was a significant sacrifice during that conflict. His protege Wally West took on the mantle, and Zoloman’s story was tied to the former Kid Flash’s life.
Enter Zoom
Hunter Zoloman arrived in Keystone City as a police profiler after Reverse Flash had manipulated his career with the FBI, costing him his job, his wife, and the full use of his leg. Stuck behind a desk, he established a friendship with Wally West and helped the Flash defeat several villains until he was severely injured during Grodd’s escape from Iron Heights prison. Paralyzed from the waist down, the Flash refused to use the Flash Museum’s Cosmic Treadmill to travel back and prevent the accident. Zoloman broke into the museum to use the treadmill himself, but an inevitable accident destroyed the museum and irrevocably altered Zoloman.
The figure that emerged had regained full use of his body, but he was driven mad by his separation from the time stream. Unlike the speedsters connected to the Speed Force, Zoloman now existed outside time and could alter his passage through it. That ability gave the impression of superspeed, although his powers were wholly different from West’s.
Dubbing himself Zoom, Zoloman’s obsession with the Flash grew. He adopted a twisted speedster appearance to taunt West as the new Reverse Flash. He also determined that his enemy would only deserve the Flash mantle if he suffered loss on the scale of his predecessor, Barry Allen. It was the start of a bitter and twisted rivalry where tragedy only led to more tragedy.
This twisted version contributed several facets to the version of Zoloman seen in The Flash, despite their different origins. Zoloman’s tragic backstory in the comics included his serial killer father murdering his mother. In the series, Zoloamn became the unrepentant serial killer.
In both versions, Zoom’s abilities are boosted by artificial means beyond the Speed Force. The character’s link to the Flash and constant undoing is linked to his attempts to manipulate, use and punish Flash, although he caused his foe to suffer tragedy in both continuities.